artfully living traditions-in_urban_art-portugal-july2013

Living traditions in urban art:Portuguese pavement art, the “Calçada Portuguesa”

& the practice of tile painting or“Azulejo”

Beth Jackson, Director & Curator, Artfully

LIVING TRADITIONS IN URBAN ART, PORTUGAL, JULY 2013artfully

LIVING TRADITIONS IN URBAN ART, PORTUGAL, JULY 2013

Stone pavement is an art with a long history. Romans are the most well known for this kind of work, both inside and outside buildings, made with intricate, beautiful and colourful designs but, in Portugal, it wasn't only the Romans that influenced this kind of work, Arabian occupation of the territory, was also important to the development of such techniques.

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One of the most important reasons for this kind of pavement was to prevent mud on the floor and streets because the space between stones lets the rain water to be absorbed, but there are other advantages like its durability, and its ease and affordability to repair.

The Portuguese pavement is a decorative art applied in most of the sidewalks around the country and it's former colonies.


In 1842, military commander Eusebius Furtado ordered inmates in the Castelode São Jorge, a Lisbon prison, to cover its courtyard with a zig‐zag pattern of tiles. The design used on that floor was a simple layout, but for the time, the work was somewhat unusual, causing the Portuguese chroniclers to write about it and attracting so much attention, not only in Portugal, that it was the subject of one of the world’s earliest photographs by Louis Daguerre.

Castelo de S. Jorge, 1842 by Louis Jaques Daguerre


Seven years later, Furtado was given a commission to pave the whole area of Rossio Square, in Lisbon centre, with a wavy pattern known as “the wide sea”. After this, the use of calçadas was made mandatory for all new paving projects in the Portuguese capital.

The cobblestone quickly spread throughout the country and colonies and Portuguese masters were asked to perform and teach these works abroad, creating authentic masterpieces in pedestrian areas.


Until the early 20th century, designs were made by the craftsmen themselves, the "calceteiros", that were inspired by traditional motifs like armillary spheres, ships, compass roses, ropes, crosses, crowns, crests, emblems, ocean waves, seaweed, starfish, anchors, stylized animals and birds, dolphins and crabs. In the fifties designs began to be made by architects and artists.


The mosaics require backbreaking labour to maintain, making the traditional art of the calceteiros both rare and expensive. It's an arduous labour, where long hours are spent painstakingly laying the stones in a prostrated position.

At right: the image of the Saint Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, in Coimbra, designed with black and white stones of basalt and limestone.


In November 1986, the Lisbon City Council created the School of pavers in order to renew the actual crew of pavers and promoting the art of paving. Other cities around the country also initiated formation projects in order to train professional men and women, hoping to ensure the "survival" of cobblestone.


Tiles (called azulejos) are everywhere in Portugal. They decorate everything from walls of churches and monasteries, to palaces, ordinary houses, park seats, fountains, shops, and railway stations. They often portray scenes from the history of the country, show its most ravishing sights, or simply serve as street signs, nameplates, or house numbers.


Although they are not a Portuguese invention (the use of glazed tiles began in Egypt), they have been used more imaginatively and consistently in Portugal than in any other nation. They became an art form, and by the 18th century no other European country was producing as many tiles for such a variety of purposes and in so many different designs. Today, they still remain a very important part of the country's architecture.


After the Gothic period, most large buildings had extensive areas of flat plaster on their interior walls, which needed some form of decoration. These empty architectural spaces produced the art of the fresco in Italy, and in Portugal, the art of the azulejo.


The term azulejo comes from the Arabic word az‐zulayj, meaning "polished stone." The Moors brought this term to the Iberian Peninsula, but despite their long presence, their influence in early Portuguese azulejoswas actually introduced from Spain in the 15th century, well after the Christian reconquest. No tile work from the time of the Moorish occupation survives in Portugal.

King Manuel I was dazzled by the Alhambra in Granada (Spain), and decided to have his palace in Sintra decorated with the same rich ceramic tiles. The first ones were imported from Seville, and in accordance to Islamic law, they portrayed no human figures, only geometric patterns.



Gradually the Portuguese painters weaned themselves off ornamental decoration and employed human or animal figures in their designs. The dominant colors were blue, yellow, green and white, but in the 17th century, large, carpet‐like tiles used just white and blue, the fashionable colors at the time of the Great Discoveries, influenced by the Ming Dynasty porcelain from China. They now portrayed Christian legends, historical events, and were not only decorative, but also protected against damp, heat and noise.

Photos by Artfully

Text from:

Portuguese pavement art, the "Calçada Portuguesa"http://margaridab.hubpages.com/hub/Portuguese‐pavement‐art‐the‐Calada‐Portuguesa#

&

AZULEJOS: The Art of Portuguese Ceramic Tileshttp://www.golisbon.com/culture/azulejos.html



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artfully living traditions-in_urban_art-portugal-july2013

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